DeLand, FL – A group working on fixing Mosquito Lagoon’s water quality wants the Volusia County Council to do something about it.
A presentation during Thursday’s VCC meeting in DeLand will go over a proposed resolution brought forth by the Estuary & Waterways Enhancement Trust to fix the pollution issues that have plagued the lagoon in recent years.
Those issues include algae blooms and marine animals dying along the Indian River Lagoon – which Mosquito Lagoon is part of – as well as high nitrate levels, a key reason why the VCC made changes to the county’s fertilizer regulations last year.
That proposal – scheduled to be heard during the VCC’s afternoon session – asks the county to use devices to monitor the lagoon’s oxygen levels and install “reef balls” under existing docks.
The plan also asks the county to find ways to increase tidal flow through the Intercoastal Waterway by retrofitting the county’s old bridges to increase oxygen flow in the water and using “ocean manifolds” to be installed by EWET.
In a recent interview on WNDB’s Marc Bernier program, District 4 Representative Doug Daniels said this proposal will likely be done using additional money from other sources as well as from the county, including the Indian River Council and the St. Johns Water Management District.
Having said that, Daniels also stressed that the big thing the county needs to fix to improve Mosquito Lagoon’s water quality is getting rid of 90,000 or so active septic tanks, especially in and around the Oak Hill area.
Daniels felt the best way to do that is run sewer lines into those areas from a nearby county-owned water treatment plant, allowing the pollutants that are currently being discharged into the lagoon via the septic tanks to go through the plant first.
He also felt that such a proposal would win support from Oak Hill’s elected leadership, especially since adding sewer lines to those areas would also lead to a long-term increase in property values.
Copyright 2015 Southern Stone Communications.